


Helter Skelter

by alec does not know (detrimentalavarice)



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Big Brother Mycroft, Kid Mycroft, Kid Sherlock, Protective Mycroft, Sad Sherlock, Sherlock Being Sherlock, Sherlock-centric, Teenlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-11
Updated: 2016-03-11
Packaged: 2018-05-25 10:26:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6191431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/detrimentalavarice/pseuds/alec%20does%20not%20know
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sherlock wonders a lot of the time if he looks like the sort of person who wants to kill himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Helter Skelter

**Author's Note:**

> hello. i'm not feeling particularly motivated, honestly. here's some nonsense to keep you entertained until i get sick of it all and delete it  
> or maybe i'll post more

**i.**

Sherlock wonders a lot of the time if he _looks_ like the sort of person who wants to kill himself.

When he goes outside he feels like one of the unstable obese ladies you see, walking around their neighbourhood, just having exited their homes for the first time in months, medication inflating their bodies. Taking strides. Getting nowhere.

Sherlock wonders if he looks like that.

Today Sherlock feels ugly so he wears a mask. Both literally and figuratively. Breaking into a sprint to reach the third floor, he digs through dirt piles of old Halloween costume items before hurriedly settling on a horrifying pale white ghoul face. He hates the mask. _How childish_ he thinks. How utterly ingenuous. He quakes, just a little, because this is going further than he has in a while. Soon, he is the mask. Flesh and plastic meld together.

He can’t stop shaking.

 

* * *

  **ii.**

Mummy won’t let him go outside.

_”Are you stupid?? They’d call the police! Why are you so bloody provocative? What actions are you trying to evoke from others? Damn it, Sherlock, why can’t you be like Mycroft…”_

Mycroft, stood at the top of the stairs, his suit immaculate. Poised, calm, and poisoning everyone with his self-assured stare.

Sherlock wishes he could run up the stairs and punch him: something,  _anything_ , to flap him. 

Caring is not an advantage, Sherlock.

 

* * *

  **iii.**

The next day is better. A vicious line of bruises run their way, helter-skeltering their way up and down his torso. Torn skin lay an embellishing touch upon his knee and scratches and cuts snaked like vines up his spindly calves.  
Mycroft caught him with the first aid kit and his shirt rucked up, trying to reach a gradually forming scab with a swab of antiseptic.

 

“How many of them”

  
It was a statement that ought to have been a question. Sherlock did not reply. He didn’t need to reply. Mycroft only needed to scan the way he was hunched and glance a couple of the marks so deduct that there were four of them, one female, three taller than him and one with a slight limp, favouring his right side. Methodical

  
_I was always the smart one, Sherlock_

  
Discomfort raking the skin on both ends, Mycroft takes the opportunity to swiftly leave, his abrupt and detached footsteps echo away on the frigid flat stones of the Holmes’ tiles. Sherlock’s hands quiver from the heat of the bitter estate.

 

* * *

  **iv.**

Through minor experimentation, common knowledge, and – alright- (unwilling) consultation from the motherly nurse, Mrs. Hudson (who is always of assistance but emits constant caring reminders that she is  _not_ your housekeeper) Sherlock discovers that ice, lots of Vitamin C, and arnica (helpfully supplied by Mrs. Hudson herself) are the best cures for black eyes. Through Molly (who harbors a terrifyingly obvious crush on Sherlock – a fact that he strategically ignores), he encounters the world of concealers.

  
Mycroft, on his part, says nothing.

  
But Sherlock notes that the cabinet where the first aid kit lives is unlocked every night.


End file.
